In their debut runs for mayor, Alfonso Davis and Steve Kimatian shed light on marginalized issues

A new school year holds infinite promise for students of all ages

In a week of second chances, the release of the Pan Am 103 bomber doesn’t fly

As Abdelbeset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi hobbled off the plane in Tripoli, Libya, I kept thinking about Michael Vick and the dogs. I wouldn’t have given Michael Vick a second thought if it were not for Donovan McNabb. Donovan is such a solid citizen. Such a decent man. In all of football you couldn’t find a more decent human being.

While many politicians carry big sticks these days, Tom Young’s endorsement of Stephanie Miner for mayor was refreshingly low-key

Score one for our town. There was a former mayor, standing on the steps of City Hall, speaking so softly that he could barely be heard over the din of a truck idling at a nearby red light. He stood politely by the side of the candidate he was endorsing, and spoke serenely of the qualities he saw as necessary in a mayor of a mid-sized city.

The Adirondacks could provide the remedy for the GOP’s health-care scare tactics

The prospect of health-care reform is more frightening than a heart attack. It is more frightening than a stroke. It is frightening like slow starvation, frightening like painful bone cancer, frightening like the horrendous pain of third degree burns. Frightening like being stranded on an island and left to perish. That is, if you believe Fox News and the rest of the Republican fringe.

A novel program designed to finally catch up to deadbeat dads could end up saving the state

Be honest, now. The first time you saw the headline “Cash for Clunkers” didn’t you think, “Here he goes again.” You thought it was another taxpayer handout for another Congel project, didn’t you?

A local professor posited that the moon launch was actually the first step toward Star Wars technology

Amid all the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the landing on the moon, it was hard to remember that, while Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong were bouncing on the lunar surface, many Americans at home were marching for an end to the war in Vietnam and racism here at home, and that the objective of going to the moon was not universally popular at the time.  

Support system: After anti-gay scrawling appeared on the windows of ArtRage Gallery, the community responded with more supportive verbiage. MICHAEL DAVIS PHOTOS

Hall of Fame pugilist Alexis Arguello fought other battles in his native Nicaragua

Summer started out deadly for celebrities. First it was Ed McMahon, followed by Farrah Fawcett, and then the left hook from nowhere, the death of Michael Jackson. In this flurry of celebrity passings, the July 1 death of Alexis Arguello, one-time boxing champion and most recently, the mayor of Managua, Nicaragua, may have passed by without much notice.

In an era of economic crises and rising taxes, consolidation makes fiscal sense

When somebody stands up and says, “Take my job, please,” you have to take notice.